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>>SOFIA is an observatory, observatories like it to be dark, so when it's summer back home,
we come down here where it's winter, and we get the long nights, and get to see stuff
in the Southern Hemisphere sky.
>>We were able to observe Eta Carinae.
I've never seen that target, so you learn something new on every observation.
>>One of my favorite objects that must be observed from the Southern Hemisphere, is actually
what's called the Large Magellenic Cloud. This is a dwarf galaxy that's a satellite to the Milky
Way. A lot of astronomers consider it a great laboratory for studying star formation.
[Music/SOFIA Taking Off]
The four instruments that the SOFIA telescope brought down for the deployment is really
necessary in the sense that each instrument's detector is sensitive to a different part
of the electromagnetic spectrum. When you're trying to conduct observations for different
science needs, you wanna be looking at light of, essentially all wavelengths, because how
much light the object is producing at each wavelength tells you something about the physics that's
going on in that system.
[Music]
>>We just finished the occultation of Pluto with the FLITECAM/HIPO
instrument set, and today we're installing the FORCAST instrument. FORCAST is the Faint
Object infRared CAmera for SOFIA Telescope. When it comes to changing instruments, the
off going instrument, there's a long procedure that gets followed. They kill all the power,
uncouple all the electrical connections, and they have a long process to de-torque all
the bolts in a certain sequence, they have to pass it down one side of the airplane that
has a reinforced floor. When we go to install it, it's the reverse process. You bring it
to the telescope flange, align it with the guide pins, and then torque it in place.
The avionics team attaches all the cables and fiber optics. They do a power check to make
sure that everything is plugged in to the right connectors. And then along comes the
cryogens team, they fill up the liquid nitrogen tanks, and then the helium tanks.
And then the science instrument team will come out, check their instrument for calibration and
optical accuracy.
>>Trying to nod to A again.
Yep, and that's done.
>>OK, that's good.
>>FORCAST is a mid-infrared camera and spectrometer. It's a really great
tool for studying the process of star formation.
Today we conducted a functional checkout.
The functional checkout serves to help us understand how the science instrument is performing
right before we go off and fly a ten hour science flight.
Today's check was actually successful, and we are ready to fly on the next FORCAST flight.
[Music/SOFIA Taking Off]